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Monday, 30 April 2012

Yesterday I went to the Wedding of a very dear friend, Phaedra. It was a great day. The service was Greek Orthodox (Phaedra's family is from Cyprus) and was steeped in tradition and a joy to be part of. The reception was a Caribbean family supper (Andrew's family is from Jamaica)-so full of spice and colourful foods!

Here is the happy couple with Phaedra's Mum and Dad:

In Greek weddings you pin money onto the happy couple in place of gifts-a great idea and a lot of fun. Here is Pheds full of money!

And now for today's card-I have been following the challenges on Retro Sketches for a few weeks but this week is the first time I have had a go at the challenge. I liked the sketch and saw it as another chance to use my new stamps from Papertrey-the garden of life.

I stamped the sentiment first then stamped the flowers. I used my new corner punch on the edges, added a few gems and inked the edges. This is my first, if basic, attempt at layering stamps. I like it and hope you do too!

Sunday, 29 April 2012

This week my cousin Lynn from America came to stay. We have not seen each other for years but over the last year have re-connected through our love of crafts. Lynn is the one who encouraged me to start a blog and is always on hand to guide me when I need help in the crafting and blogging world! She came over with a bag of goodies for me-so I now have lots of new crafting toys to play with.
Whilst Lynn was here we went shopping for shoes and handbags and her creative skills shone through even when shopping-it is her who spotted the most divine shoes and handbag to match a linen suit I am wearing to a Wedding today (pictures will taken and shared later in the week).

Also Lynn helped me with a few crafting techniques and armed me with some useful tips to help me improve my skills. I had such a great few days with Lynn and hope we can see each other very soon.

I have for a long time admired the card's Lynn creates that use different colored inks but could not seem to master this myself. But with a few pointers from my coz, here is my first go at using different inks and also using curved edges with my new corner punch (We-R memory keepers corner chomper)

I used my new set of rubber stamps from papertreyink -this is the 'Garden of Life' set.

I am pleased with my first try at this and really enjoyed doing it. I have decided I am going to give this to my Aunt Mary who is celebrating her Birthday this week-this card is going to replace the card I had made for her as I am keen to show off my new skill!!

I will be entering this into the challenge at Inspired by. It was their inspiration photo below that gave me this idea-the tall green stems and the colours of the tulips on the left being the source of my inspiration. I will also enter this into the 'CAS flower' challenge at Cas-ual Friday (next week Lynn starts on the DT of this blog-so make sure to check it out!)

Well I have a wedding to go to in the rain! I will over the next week have some photos of Lynn's visit to share and some Wedding photos.
Thanks for stopping by x

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

The Runway Inspired photo below inspired a new colour combo for me-Black and Orange. I saw this photo and it was these colours that hit me combined with the way these colours show off the long, lean shape of the models arm and legs:

So the orange/black combo with the lean effect inspired me to make this Birthday card:

I have used this digi image from mygrafico before and printed quite a few so you will be seeing it again!

I layered orange on black ribbon and added little orange gems on black buttons to really show off this striking colour combo.
The layout I used is from the sketch challenge this week at My Time Made Easy.

Monday, 23 April 2012

Just popping in with a very quick post today to share a Birthday card I made today for my neighbour. He is a chef and I wanted to make card for him using chef's hat. I played around with lots of complicated designs but in the end opted for this CAS design because I felt it reflected the crispness of chef's white........before they start cooking! On refection I should have used checked blue paper but here is what I came up with:

Sunday, 22 April 2012

Next weekend one of my very dearest friends get married and then in June Callum's best friend Tim gets married. So today I have Tim and Kerry's card to share with you.

I was inspired by Laurie Schmidlin's card this week on Case Study challenge blog. It was the distinctive look of the heart that really caught my eye and it got me thinking of what to do for this card. Then when I saw the sketch on the challenge blog Cas-ual Fridays the idea just popped into my head and this is what I came up with:

I used the sizziz dies for both hearts. The solid heart is full of glitter but hard to see in this light. I decided against putting a sentiment on the front and stamped 'congratulations' on the inside. I added the few gems just to make the first heart stand out more-this heart is raised.
I will also enter this into the 'dies and punches' challenge at Lexis Creations

I am pleased with this card and hoping that Tim and Kerry like it!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend x

Saturday, 21 April 2012

A girlie card today for my niece Holly. Her Birthday is at the beginning of May. She has just started to try out make up so I knew my 'bath time' rubber stamps from 'Cathie Shuttleworth designs' would be perfect for her. And I wanted to make it girlie but not go for the obvious pink so I went for lilac and purple with a few gems. I just love this fabric ribbon-I picked it up at a local shop-what a find! The sentiment is a freebie from scrap-a-licious-times. I used promakers 'ochid' for the colouring.

And here is a photo of Holly (on the left) and her sister Chloe on holiday recently-I think they have been trying out the make-up!!

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

He may well be hitting his mid 40's but he still thinks he is young enough to hit the live music festivals! I have been to Glastonbury and the 'V' festival with him once and, once was all I needed!! I loved the festivals but camping and using outdoor loos is not my idea of a weekend of fun. So since then he has gone to the festivals with his friend. Last year they missed a year so this year I thought I would buy him tickets to go to 'Lovebox' and music festival that just happens to be near us. I looked at the line up and not knowing who any of the bands were I just went for 2 Saturday tickets. I' m just hoping that I have chosen the right day......my finances couldn't stretch to 2 weekend tickets-they sure do charge you enough to pitch a tent in mud!

As I booked the tickets online I decided to make a 'mock-up' ticket and slot it into my own hand-made pocket card. I got this idea when I saw the challenge this week at paper makeup stamps.

I made the pocket card simply out of Kraft card stock and stuck 3 edges together so I could just slip my handmade 'mock-up' ticket in, with the top part showing. I kept to the theme and used a digi image form Create with TLC (it says-U ROCK-if you can't see it). I layered the image onto vintage music sheet paper and added some jute twine. The earth tones are my link to the fact that the festival is outside and is likely to be muddy! Earth tones is the challenge this week at Dream Valley Challenges. I will also enter this into the 'our boys and their toys' challenge at our creative corner

I made Callum's card a while ago and did post it but just as a reminder as it does follow the same theme...........and yes Callum really is my rock! So a very Happy Birthday to my very own rocker toyboy!!

Monday, 16 April 2012

Well another week is here. This week in England we are going to be having a week of April showers.

As we are on a hosepipe ban and facing a drought some will be pleased that the rain is here. I guess it will help those May Flowers to bloom! However I can't say I am looking forward to it and to cheer the week along I decided to make the May header for my calendar. And here is it.......plenty of May flowers!!

The sentiment is from Bird cards and the flower paper and die cut is from my stash-they came from a box of goodies my cousin Lynn sent over from the US (sorry not sure where they are from).
If those April showers creep into May then this cheerful and bright calendar will help me get through (although for 2 weeks of May I will be in the sun on hols in Cyprus....yippee!!)

Sunday, 15 April 2012

My card today is for my sister, Tina, who is the Manager of a library in Hampshire. It has just finished a re-furb and will be re-opening on Thursday. This card is to let her know that we are thinking about her and hoping it all goes well.

I didn't just want to put 'good luck' on the card. I thought about what her job was and how important libraries and books are and I came up with the sentiments on the card because books........not only help us to improve our memory, they inspire us and allow us to dream!

I am entering this into the challenge this week at Cas-ual Fridays which is based on 'opposites attract'-using opposite colours on the colour wheel:

My cousin Lynn has just been chosen to be one of their DT from May, so this post is a congrats for her too!

Well I am off for a relaxing evening as this week we are continuing with our community allotment project and tomorrow sees me filling boxes with compost and then Tuesday we have a gardening training session. I need this as I have never planted seeds before and have no idea what I am doing. Although I now have bright green gardening gloves........well I don't want to ruin my nails!!

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

I have been following the runway inspired blog for a while but to date I haven't seemed to have been able to make a card that I was happy with. But when I saw this weeks photo an idea popped into my head:

First here is this weeks inspirational photo:

It was the green sleeve, the boost of flowers and the white open space that inspired me to come up with my card:

I knew I wanted to have a strip of green ribbon and a strip of flowers surrounded by white space. When I saw the colour combo challenge at Colourq I knew the 'poopy parade' and 'pumpkin pie' had to be the colours of my flowers. Plus over at catered crop they have a 'brad' challenge going so I added these flower brads that have been in my stash for a while.
So it all came together nicely and is a card I can use for any occasion and in the style I love best!

Monday, 9 April 2012

Hope you all had a good Easter and had plenty of time to chill...maybe you got to do some Yoga??

Today my card is for my friend Claire who is always on the move. She is a Lindy Hop fanatic and dances whenever she gets a chance. As well as this she loves Yoga, tap dancing and cycling....I am out of breathe writing this! I joke with her that she is either taping her toes or standing on her head!!
I decided to go with a Yoga card which is sort of weird because I am not a Yoga fan-one of my favourite mugs actually has 'Yoga Kills' written all over it. Still each to their own!!

Tuesday, 3 April 2012

I have just been making this card for Case Study Challenge expecting to post it tomorrow however I have just realised that the deadline is midnight tonight!

The challenge was the case the card by Laura Bassen. I loved the negative die use in this card and the bold and CAS style. I have been thinking of how to use these ideas all week. Finally I decided to use my heart die cuts and to make a Wedding card for one of my dearest friends, Phaedra, who gets married on 29th April. Pheds and her hubby to be, Andrew, came all the way to Santorini for our Wedding. I wanted to make a card I knew she would love. She is very stylish and non fussy but likes a bit of glitter.....so this card is made with love and with her in mind.

I die cut a large glitter heart, then cut out a small die cut from this heart to give me this shimmery outline heart. I used foam pads to give it some depth and then embossed the lilac card before die cutting a smaller card and stuck this in the centre. I decided to use cream on cream as I felt this was kinda classy for my stylish friend. I got the idea of embossing and die cutting from Aimes (check out her blog-she is a great inspiration)

Today my card is for a friend's Birthday and she does love a glass of red wine. The sentiment was designed for me by Paulette at Create with TLC. I just love it and is so perfect for so many of my friends and family.

I could do with a glass of red right now as I have again been in the dentist chair for a nasty extraction. Still, it is done now and I will just have to wait until cocktail hour for a vino...........is it 5pm anywhere???

I had problems getting a wine glass stamp but ended up getting this image and then paper piecing some red card to make the red wine........I think this is a French Burgundy!!

Monday, 2 April 2012

I saw this sentiment on bluebirdsflats blog and thought it was perfect as both my Dad and my husband were born in April-2 of the most important people to me. I have already made Callum his card so I decided to use this for Dad. And as the sentiment says, Dad really is the best-always there when I need him to give me a boost, a supporting hand and a whole lot of love! I hope this card can go some way to showing him what he means to me.

I embossed the black card stock and used a woodware punch for the sentiment. Added some bakers twine and a few black gems. I wanted to keep it CAS, especially after making all those frilly Easter cards!!

I will be entering this into the Play Date Cafe colour challenge of 'Black, white with a splash of brown'. This really was a challenge for me as brown and black just don't seem right to me but my little brown button solved that for me-plus I inked up the edge of the sentiment with Tim Holtz 'burnt corduroy' for a little more brown.

Sunday, 1 April 2012

As promised, I have some photos to share of us building the veg boxes for our community park.

Here we have Callum sawing the legs for our box and I am...mmmm........smiling for the camera!

And here we have 'Charlie's Angels' minus one, playing with a few tools that probably should be no where near us! This is Claire my friend and neighbour who has worked hard this last year helping to get this project off the ground. We are so pleased to be finally in the park building the allotment rather than sat in Council offices in yet another meeting.........now we get to play!

As I sit here typing this I can still here the drills going as some of the neighbours are finishing their boxes. This noise is balanced with the cheerful sounds of the local kids playing together in the park-a real joy to listen to.

This project has been a great way for our community to get to know each other and develop a real sense of community that didn't exist before. I do have a sneaky feeling that quite a bit of gossipping and tea drinking will take place alongside our veg growing!!

I did manage to get a quick bit of crafting done this weekend and have my last Easter card to share with you. So far I have made cards with Easter eggs and crosses so today we have Easter chicks.